~ an irreverent look at UK politics

The retired Met’ Detective Chief Inspector who took a photograph of Diane Abbott MP drinking a mojito on a train was disciplined and forced into early retirement because of his far-right wing posts on social media.

I like a Mojito myself. But I too am sick of the laying it on thick. Its 2019 one would have thought most people had got over it since legalisation in 1967. Who is it they are talking to expect the thick and bigoted? and in that case Why Bother?

But am sick that as a female, disabled and over 50s I cannot go anywhere and be safe and have no rights

Maybe the onus is in the wrong direction. Lot of people not living lives and have no rights.

The thugs and the prejudiced are the same idiots. Unfortunate;y ruling us all.

“All of which has what to do with a senior member of the Labour Party breaking a 14 year old by law and denying knowledge of it ?”

@Meryl Davids

TBH even if it was a Tory MP photographed drinking a can of Mojito on a train I’d be amazed that a Tory used public transport, but not so much outraged by them chilling out after a day at the office with an alcoholic beverage.
It’s not crime of the century. They ain’t riproriously pissed, belching and swearing in people’s faces. Which is presumably what the law was intended to stop.

Wonder how many people having a quite snorter on the tubes gets their photo taken and reported? I sure as hell wouldn’t grass them up.

How on earth are they far right comments? If the comments being refered to are those shown in the article, he makes perfectly legitimate comments about the endless transgender narrative and the media cover up of the EU migrant crisis, that’s far right…???. FFS…. you people are completely detatched from reality. Clearly you have no idea what far right is…. it’s certainly not a man who believes in ‘live and let live’. Neither is it standing up to cultural marxism or politically correct agendas, that does not make you far right… you absolute imbeciles.

Who are we kidding? if this had been a white man and Abbott had seen it see would be all over it like a rash. She is out of order, the law is the law mo matter how silly or out of date people think it is..

She ignore the signs and as Shadow Home Secretary she should abide by the law or is it one rule for her and one rule for the rest of us. We don’t want passed up commuters on our public transport. She should be made accountable

The purpose of the anti-alcohol law is to reduce drunken loutish behaviour and to provide the police with an arrest-able offence if someone is behaving anti-socially. It was not brought in to stop any member of the public from drinking quietly and responsibly, though that is the legal consequence. Dianne Abbot was probably unaware of this (as most people probably are), and she was technically wrong.

But this policeman did not act in any official capacity to inform her of the law or to ask her not to drink alcohol, nor indeed to arrest her for breaking the law – indeed he took no official action, and I would argue that the picture he took was therefore not taken in performance of his official duties as a police officer, but instead in a private capacity. He did not take photographs of all the other people having quiet sips from can’s containing alcohol, just a black woman Labour politician, and he then shared this picture taken without her permission on social media, again without her permission, which would appear to one or more offences under GDPR.

Unfortunately this appears to be nothing more than a racist, sexist and politically motivated action by a rogue police officer against someone who is abused because of her race, her gender and her politics every day and who should be able to rely on the police to protect her from this stuff rather than commit it themselves.

I think there is nothing racist or homophobic in what he has said. Having read it a couple of times I think that it’s pretty much spot on. I too along with millions of others are sick of having politically correct issues pushed down our throat and force fed to our children. Stopping people discussing or raising relevant concerns over these issues by labelling them racist sexist or homophobic is bulling and just as destructive as being guilty of one of the above. As for Diane Abbot she is very clearly racist, she should know the law as regards drinking alcohol and she not only broke the law but she then lied about it. Is that the calibre of MP we want serving us. Diane Abbot should have been dismissed not the Police Officer who has served his country for years. It’s the attitude and high handiness of many of the people who have left these witch hunt type comments who are destroying our society. What will save us is when people and in particular our children just see people, not race religion or sexual orientation and give them the respect that they earn and deserve.

Elaine – The police officer was not homophobic towards Dianne Abbott, but his first Tweet is clearly homophobic. He is complaining that LGBT people are getting preferential treatment – like being gay is OK but being late for rugby training isn’t OK. The clear implication of this is that he believe that being gay is NOT ok – and that is homophobic.

Of course, he is using that as a supposed example of excessive PC – in that the newspapers are not simply assuming that its OK to be gay, but are actively pushing that as a story. In this he may be correct – we should all simply accept that LGBT is as normal as any other sexual orientation and simply let people get on with their lives without having to stress just how OK it is.

But by drawing a contrast with something else, that is socially unacceptable (being late to a rugby practice you have committed yourself to) he is by implication saying that being gay is NOT ok. Hence homophobia.

As for Dianne Abbott, what evidence do you have that “she is clearly racist”? Do you know how nonsensical that sounds?

Do you know every single law and by-law you are supposed to follow? If you do, perhaps you can tell me without looking it up what other things are prohibited on TfL trains?

And what evidence do you have that Dianne Abbott lied about it? She put her hand up and apologised. So she was lying when she admitted it was she? You believe she didn’t have a drink, but is lying by saying she did? Do you know how nonsensical that sounds?

Finally you finish your comment by saying that “people and in particular our children just see people, not race religion or sexual orientation and give them the respect that they earn and deserve” – can you please explain how your comments about Dianne Abbott meet that criteria and are not themselves racist? Because your comments – particularly about how she was being racist, how she was lying and how she should be sacked and not the police constable certainly sound racist to me.

Jim – And please don’t quote the change.org petition which is a pretty incoherent rant by an individual and not genuine evidence. Because aside from this, google is telling me that Diane Abbot suffers racist insults every day not that she is racist herself.

So please, if you have genuine factual evidence to back up this claim – and to demonstrate that it is not simply another hate attack on her – please share it so that we can see just what it is that makes you believe this.

Interesting definitions of ‘live and let live’ here. It’s OK to be gay it seems, but don’t tell anyone, especially children, who apparently catch gayness through osmosis. This man is most definitely homophobic. Why would anyone object to a gay/transgender rugby team, unless of course they fear that their ‘straight’ rugby team may be beaten by them. It wasn’t so long ago (in fact it is still a view in some quarters) that the idea of women’s football was regarded as social madness which would destroy the fabric of family life. I’m still waiting for that to happen.
Question: If it had been Boris Johnson drinking the mojito, would we be having this debate now?
Think it through. Might take the UKIP/Brexit ‘dont push anything down my throat’ crowd a while for it to sink in, but I can wait a week or two

Perfectly legitimate tweets, pathetic that it’s called far-right. Calling this far-right only denigrates the word because people see what is being called far-right & don’t take the word seriously anymore.

No one is suggesting that any individual should be censored for these tweets. But this was a senior police officer who is expected to be impartial and not homophobic, hence his dismissal. And perhaps not far-right – but yet still homophobic, and his publication of a photo without consent and selection of a black, female, labour politician from all the people on the train doing similar (of which there were likely quite a few) also demonstrated either sexism, racism or right-wing bias any of which is unacceptable in a police officer.

1. She did NOT break the law it is NOT a law to drink on a train, some trains sell alcohol. It is a TFL law and not applicable in all cases. Google it.

2. Henry and Pete …………Neville is a racist and he should not be taking secret photos of women on trains he is a police officer and supposed to uphold the law not break it! He took this photo in order to cause Ms Abbott as much distress as is possible and for what reason? She was doing no harm minding her own business a high profile shadow minister using public transport, still not good enough for those of you who just love to be as vile as possible to this woman! And Pete I doubt very much you’ve done as much with your life as DA has and she is not a racist. People like you are what is wrong with this country but you can’t see it.

a. Neville was not dismissed for his photo / sharing of DA – but rather for his unacceptable views.

b. Neville took DA’s photo and shred it not in his role as a police officer, but as a private individual and in contravention of GDPR. Whilst we may never know his genuine motivation, once can only assume it is either racism or sexism or anti-labour (i.e. right-wing) fervour or a combination of some or all of them. I guess we will never know what his thought processes were…